Many Britons off colour after catching solar fever

Winter is fast approaching in the UK and the public is asking if the government is acting responsibly as it strives to go green when the country is so much in the red.

The winter blues are fast approaching and the public is asking if the government is acting responsibly as it strives to go green when the country is so much in the red
The British are not a happy lot at the moment. Understandably. Many will lose their jobs soon, victims of huge public spending cuts and value-added tax rises in January. On top of that, the winter blues are just about to kick in.
So the outbreak of solar fever within the rural community, driven by renewable energy companies, is a ray of sunshine amid the gloom.
The bonanza has been triggered by the government's "feed-in tariff" (FiT) scheme, launched in April, which helps producers of solar power with upfront subsidies followed by inflated payment for the electricity it sells to energy suppliers.
So generous are these incentives that energy companies from as far away as Germany and China are competing to rent land space from British farmers, with offers well above market prices. In the favoured south-west region, Britain's sunniest, the scheme has already attracted 70 planning applications, with permission granted for the UK's first purpose-built solar farm at a disused tin mine site in Truro, Cornwall.
Michael Eavis, the owner of Worthy Farm in Somerset, host to the annual Glastonbury music festival, is having solar panels installed on the roof of a cowshed. They will generate enough power supply for 40 houses. "It's a good offer," he says.
Who can blame him and the other farmers for accepting the deals? Carpeting their green fields with black and silver photovoltaic (PV) panels may not be a sight for sore eyes, but an average income of £1,500 (Dh8,695) an acre more than makes up for the drop in aesthetic value. So long as the project is up and running by April 2012, when the government reviews its payment structure, anyone with 35 acres to spare could earn up to £50,000 a year, guaranteed and tax-free for 25 years. All the farmers have to do is let their land, sit back and relax. The developer runs the system and reaps the reward from the feed-in tariff.
Although there has been disquiet about foreign solar energy equipment manufacturers striking gold in the rush, business has been good for local companies too, with some reporting a 200 per cent growth in inquiries and resulting business since February, when the then Labour government announced plans for the FiTs.
But not all landowners are lured by the money or the bright prospect of solar energy, their reservation exacerbated by the situation in Europe. The Spanish government launched a similar feed-in tariff scheme three years ago, with generous incentives. Earlier this month, it announced it would cut feed-in tariffs for ground-based PV panels by 45 per cent, almost certainly killing future investment in the trade. Germany, the world's most successful solar market, has done the same, ostensibly because installation figures have been booming and solar prices coming down.
"If the subsidy was abolished, that would leave me with no income and a load of wires lying across my land," said Russell Hayman, who has turned down an offer to install hundreds of solar panels on his farm near Honiton in Devon, south-west England.
Other economic concerns have been expressed by the public at large. One big question is whether the government is right to go green when it is so in the red. On top of the taxpayer-funded subsidies, the FiTs will add up to £8.6 billion to consumer energy bills, a rise to allow electricity utilities to buy supply from green sources at above-market rates set by the government. It is a huge cost for so little electricity. Last year all the solar panels in Britain generated about 1/500th of the output from a medium-size conventional coal-fired station.
Then there is the question of environmental impact. Some are questioning the need for the scheme at all, which was launched as part of an attempt to meet EU targets on renewable energy. The global warming scare is now perceived as weak after a series of scandals over data manipulation and errors, punctuated by the recent decision of the Chicago Carbon Exchange, the largest in the world, to stop carbon trading.
But the most common question people are asking in the grip of winter cold and gloom is whether the British weather justifies the financial and environmental costs.
"Is it worth blighting the countryside with something that doesn't work well in our climate?" asked Mark Lancaster, an Essex farmer. "To me, the answer is no."
 
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